Trader Joe's battle with Canadian copycat isn't over

The "renegade" grocery store bringing Canadians a taste of Trader Joe's might be in jeopardy once again: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a 2013 lawsuit the US grocery store brought against Pirate Joe's—a Vancouver, BC, store run by Michael Hallatt, who buys goods at Trader Joe's across the border, then sells them for a profit in Canada, where Trader Joe's doesn't operate, per the Guardian.

A US judge initially dismissed the suit, arguing Trader Joe's couldn't prove Hallatt was affecting its business. But while a three-judge panel upheld the dismissal of certain claims from that suit on Friday, it allowed the case to continue on federal trademark claims in a unanimous decision, per Courthouse News.

Stressing that Hallatt transports products across the border without proper quality control measures, Judge Morgan Christen writes that Trader Joe's could "suffer a tarnished reputation and resultant monetary harm in the United States from contaminated goods sold in Canada," per NPR.

"Trader Joe's alleges that it is aware of at least one customer who became sick after consuming food sold by Pirate Joe's," he adds. Hallatt denies selling the item in question and says the whole suit is silly.